Edexcel GCSE English Literature key terms

A pair of successive lines of poetry, often forming a stanza.

A literary convention presenting a lover as devoted to an idealised, often unattainable beloved, whose rejection makes the lover suffer.

The period in which people develop a relationship with marriage in view.

An English common-law doctrine under which a married woman’s legal identity was largely absorbed into her husband’s, restricting her independent control of property, earnings and contracts. Marriage settlements could protect some property.

A reputation for being able and willing to repay borrowed money, allowing someone to borrow on the strength of that reputation.

A person or organisation to whom money is owed.

Too ready to believe what someone says, even when there is little reason to trust it.

A historically variable term associated with people born in colonial territories. In discussions of Bertha Mason, it identifies her Caribbean colonial background; it should not automatically be treated as meaning mixed-race.

An interpretation supported by evidence and reasoned judgement, rather than a summary of events or an unsupported opinion.

An evidence-based way of writing that explains and judges the significance of a text rather than simply retelling its events.

The ability to assess claims, compare evidence and reach an independent judgement rather than simply accepting authority.

Questioning a witness to test the accuracy or reliability of their evidence.

Wearing garters crossed around the legs to secure stockings; Malvolio adopts this appearance because Maria’s forged letter instructs him to.

A man whose wife is sexually unfaithful to him; traditionally represented in jokes and images as wearing horns.

The organised presentation of a leader as exceptionally wise, heroic and deserving of devotion.

A sense of who someone is in relation to cultural traditions, languages, places and communities.

A clergyman serving a parish; Feste impersonates one when he performs as Sir Topas.

A repeated pattern in which one act of retaliation provokes further retaliation.

An arrangement in which an ending returns to the opening situation, image or words.

An attitude of distrust towards promises, motives or the possibility of improvement, shown by Benjamin’s suspicion of political change.

A metrical unit consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.

A character who mirrors another character’s troubling feelings or possibilities in a more extreme form.

Money owed to another person; the play also uses the language of debt for emotional obligations.

Deliberately misleading someone into believing something untrue.

Behaviour considered proper according to a society’s expectations of manners and respectability.

Behaviour that shows submission or respect towards someone regarded as superior in rank or authority.

A nineteenth-century belief that individuals or civilisation could decline towards a supposedly more primitive condition. It is a historical theory, not an accepted explanation of criminal behaviour.